50 Cent has been in the news a lot lately. More specifically, 50 Cent and his money have been in the headlines a lot lately. Formerly one of the richest rappers on the planet, Curtis James Jackson III now claims he’s flat broke.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from posting photos of himself on Instagram sitting on a bed settled with bundles of cash that could easily equate to thousands upon thousands of dollars, but Jackson claims that’s all fake.

And he might not be lying. Well, he probably is just to keep the lawyers off his back (the rapper is currently trying to keep the courts from taking his money), but a lot of rappers are, in all likelihood, faking their riches.

Jackson managed to make a pretty penny from his rap career since he exploded just as internet piracy was becoming ubiquitous, but he made his fortune after getting in on the ground floor with a product called Vitamin Water.

However, most rappers and indeed most musicians aren’t afforded the same investment opportunities. You may have at one point wondered to yourself, “If no one is making money in the music industry, how are rappers so rich?”

Well, the easy answer is they’re not. Sure, Jay-Z is no doubt well on his way to becoming a billionaire, but more recent rappers aren’t as rich as they’ll have you believe, no matter what their Instagram accounts show you.

Nathan S runs the blog Your Favourite Rappers Are Broke and he notes “it can be nearly impossible to figure out the difference between owned and rented Bentleys, between guys who are truly making money and guys who are just spending their advances”.

Yes, a lot of the time those luxury cars are rented and the money artists are raining down at the club are label advances allocated to do things like produce an album, promote said album, or embark on a tour.

“Only in a child support trial is the equation reversed and rappers are incentived to minimize their cash flow – ‘No your honor, that $100K Lambo isn’t an asset, I’m only renting it!'” Nathan S writes.

For example, you might believe Chief Keef has Scrooge McDuck-level wealth thanks to his music and his image, but according to his child support trial, the rapper earns about $13K a month. That’s pretty good by anybody’s standards, but it’s about as much as your average orthodontist earns.

“The truth in my verses versus, your metaphors about what your net worth is!” Jay-Z once rapped and he’s right. As Bloomberg points out, the claims most rappers make in their lyrics are a far cry from their actual income.

[include_post id=”471751″]

So what, right? Hip-hop is all about being boastful and what artist doesn’t try to sell a particular image or lifestyle? Well, as Nathan S argues, it’s all well and good so long as we all understand it’s a kind of fiction.

“I think that’s important for people to know,” he writes. “Literally every day I hear from aspiring rappers who think dropping out of school is their best shot at becoming a millionaire because, directly or indirectly, they look to rappers like Chief Keef.”

“By contrast, your average orthodontist makes $200K a year, so if you really are all about that money, learning how to put braces on a teenager is a far smarter move than picking up a mic.”

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine